Transgrid has announced that the EnergyConnect project is being “fully energised” after the successful completion of construction of the New South Wales (NSW) section of the interconnector that links three state grids for the first time and will integrate multiple renewable energy zones into the national network.
The NSW network operator and delivery partner Elecnor Australia confirmed they have completed construction of 700 km of new transmission lines from Wagga Wagga to the South Australian border with a spur line to Red Cliffs in Victoria, with 1,508 towers and monopoles and 10,385 km of high-voltage conductor cabling.
Transgrid said stage two of EnergyConnect, the 540 km line between Buronga and Wagga Wagga, is now being energised following detailed commissioning checks. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) will begin its inter-network testing on the stage later this year to confirm the reliability and performance of the new infrastructure.
The first stage of the project, a 160 km line from the South Australian border to Buronga and into Victoria, became operational last year. The South Australian leg of the project, stretching 206 km from the NSW border to Robertstown, was completed in 2023 by ElectraNet.
“Energisation of EnergyConnect marks the culmination of one of the nation’s most significant transmission builds and is a defining moment in the delivery of Australia’s clean energy future,” TransGrid Chief Executive Officer Brett Redman said, noting that the process had not been easy.
The network operator highlighted a range of challenges including global supply chain impacts, labour shortages, flooding, and the insolvency of a delivery partner with Transgrid’s share of Project EnergyConnect blowing out from an original estimate of $2.1 billion (USD 1.47 billion) to $3.6 billion.
“This critical interconnector has not been easy to deliver,” Redman told the audience at the Australia Energy Week conference in Melbourne on Wednesday. “It needed more money than originally expected, but now the full route is connected, it will start to reduce constraints, improve resilience, and over time, support lower-cost energy.”
The line will add 800 MW of transfer capacity between NSW and South Australia and into Victoria. It is expected to allow more than 2 GW of solar and wind generation and battery storage projects to connect into the National Electricity Market.
Redman said independent modelling shows EnergyConnect will deliver $964 million in net benefits for consumers even after the higher delivery costs.
“EnergyConnect will benefit consumers by enabling access to lower-cost sources of energy like solar and wind, also known as wholesale energy, which is the largest component of household bills,” he said. “The project will also help achieve Australia’s climate change targets as we replace coal-fired power with renewable energy.”
Gordon Taylor, Executive General Manager of Major Projects at Transgrid, said EnergyConnect is key to building the modern power system needed to cater for a modern economy by 2035.
“This colossal effort has delivered a unified energy backbone to carry stable, lower-cost renewable power exactly where and when it is needed most,” he said.
In addition to the EnergyConnect milestone, Transgrid said construction of the 365 km HumeLink transmission project – which will connect Snowy 2.0 to the grid – is proceeding at pace while planning continues for the delivery of the 240 km NSW section of the VNI West project.
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